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Friday, April 25, 2008
Chinese lawyers sue CNN for apology
A group of Chinese lawyers has gone to China’s courts to force CNN to apologize for remarks by commentator Jack Cafferty and to pay a symbolic compensation, China’s state media reported.
Fourteen lawyers filed suit in Beijing to seek compensation of 100 yuan, an amount equivalent to $14, the China Daily said on Thursday.
Chinese have been angered by Cafferty’s comments earlier this month on the political news program “The Situation Room”. Cafferty - a well-known curmudgeon who has lambasted numerous politicians and governments - called China’s leaders a “bunch of goons and thugs” and its exports to the United States “junk with the lead paint on them”.
After a Chinese government spokesperson called on CNN to “apologize to the whole Chinese people,” numerous Chinese Web sites have targeted the broadcaster.
In the United States, between 2,000 and 5,000 Chinese-Americans rallied outside CNN’s Hollywood office last Saturday to demand that the company fire Cafferty, the Associated Press reported.
CNN responded to the Chinese government by saying that “it was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offense to the Chinese people” and that CNN “would apologize to anyone who interpreted the comments in this way.”
The Beijing district court where the lawyers filed the law suit declined to say if it had accepted the case, the China Daily reported.
